AT&T Will Charge You if They Catch You Tethering for Free

If you are an AT&T iPhone user who has been enjoying free tethering well you better be on the look out because AT&T is able to detect if you have been participating in unauthorized tethering activity and if they do they will automatically sign you up for a paid tethering service without further notice.

According to AndroidPolice, “Jailbroken iPhones typically use the same tethering technique as a standard iPhone, the one that’s already present in iOS. This method exposes tethering activity quite readily, because the iPhone, when in tethering mode, sends traffic through an alternate APN (AT&T access point/router) for the express purpose of identifying the traffic as tethered data. This makes it extremely easy for AT&T to identify whether or not an iOS device is utilizing tethering, and just how much of their data is consumed via tethering.”

However if you wish to get sneaky and go around AT&T’s back you may do so by downloading an app called PDANet which allows you to hide your usage. AndroidPolice goes on to further explain why Android devices can’t be detected unlike iPhones.

“Android tethering, on the other hand, isn’t set up to route data through an alternate APN when the phone is in tethering mode – meaning AT&T would actually have to scan packets to determine whether or not you’re tethering. This requires diversion of AT&T’s resources (read: money), while identifying iPhone tethering is markedly simpler (read: cheap).”

I can only feel sorry for the customer service representatives working at AT&T when customers call the following month and find out that they have been charged for tethering services without their knowledge.